Briefing: Affordable housing

Building on Labor’s existing proposals to reform negative gearing and capital gains tax, Labor in April 2017 announced new policies to improve affordability, increase supply, boost jobs, and reduce the economic risks associated with distorted investment decisions.

Labor has a clear housing affordability plan:

Reform negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions;

Facilitate a COAG process to introduce a uniform vacant property tax across all major cities;

Limit direct borrowing by self-managed superannuation funds;

Increased foreign investor fees and penalties;

Establish a bond aggregator to increase investment in affordable housing;

Boost homelessness support for vulnerable Australians;

Getting better results from the National Affordable Housing Agreement;

Re-establish the National Housing Supply Council and the Minister for Housing.

Newstart Review

2018 Anglicare Rental Affordability Report

Anglicare’s Rental Affordability Snapshot report released today is a damning indictment of the failure of Malcolm Turnbull to address the housing affordability crisis.

Last year Turnbull and Scott Morrison promised to make housing affordability the ‘centerpiece’ of the Budget. Instead, they delivered a grab bag of contradictory measures that have done nothing to alleviate the growing problems in housing.

Almost twelve months later the Turnbull government has been incapable of delivering on its modest housing policy agenda with no outcome reached between the Commonwealth and the states for a new national housing agreement.

With less than two weeks to go before Morrison delivers this year’s Budget, Anglicare’s report should serve as a wake-up call to a self-obsessed government that has its priorities wrong.

Anglicare’s report shows:

No rentals were affordable for a single person on Newstart or Youth Allowance in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Darwin or Perth.

For a working couple on the minimum wage with two children, nearly 75 percent of private rental dwellings suitable to the family’s needs are unaffordable.

Less than one percent of rental dwellings appropriate for a single adult receiving the Disability Support Pension are affordable.

Less than three percent of appropriate private rental dwellings are affordable for a single person on the minimum wage.

Turnbull and Morrison should put the essential needs of Australians above their proposed $65 billion tax cut gift to multinational corporations and banks. If Malcolm Turnbull had a shred of decency, credibility or authority he would prioritise housing lower income Australians over a tax giveaway for the big end of town.

Turnbull should act on Anglicare Australia’s call for a fair tax system by limiting negative gearing and capital gains tax exemptions, investing in social and affordable rental housing and working with the states to reform tenancy laws.

Reducing inequality

After a quarter-century of continuous economic growth, inequality is at a 75-year high.

2.5 million Australians live below the poverty line, and hundreds of thousands of Australians are unemployed.

For all the success Australians have achieved, the rewards are not as widely spread or as fairly shared as we like to imagine. Too many Australians want work but cannot find it. Unemployment is unacceptably high in parts of the country, and for particular groups – young people, people with disability and Indigenous Australians. Increasingly, underemployment, insecure work and low wages growth is making it harder for families to build stable lives.

Inequality is rising – undermining living standards, sustainable growth and social cohesion. Perhaps for the first time in our history, we cannot be confident that the next generation of Australians will be better off than we are. Understandably, many Australians are anxious about what the future holds – for their families and their country. This is a national debate we need to have.

Growing Together offers new policy thinking and a new agenda – putting inclusive growth and social investment at the centre of Australia’s future. With the latest evidence and contributions from some of the country’s leading policy thinkers, it provides a detailed assessment of Australian society today, and offers some ideas for change around seven key pillars:

Putting Jobs First

Investing in the Early Years

Quality Education Across Life

Balancing Work, Care and Family

Supporting Longevity

Building Stronger Communities

Modernising Policy Development and Governance

Together, these represent a new agenda for tackling inequality in Australia.

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Acknowledgement of country

Labor acknowledges the Gumbaynggirr,Dunghutti and Birpai peoples, the traditional custodians of the land in and around the federal division of Cowper. We pay respect to elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal people.